In 2015, Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn became the first female clergy member of an Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles. During her time at the shul, she worked with a variety of populations, helping members of all ages connect to their spirituality and practice. Now, she’s leaving her position to move to the East Coast with her husband, Akiva Newborn, and their daughter Ella, to work as a chaplain at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
“I feel very blessed to have been in the LA community,” Thomas-Newborn said. “LA is both a very large and a very small community. When I first came here, it was tough, but once I really built relationships with people, I felt so embraced and supported. I was lucky to have had relationships with people in the Orthodox community, as well as other dominations and faiths.”
According to the rabbanit, one of the most meaningful aspects of her work was the mental health awareness events and Shabbatons she held. At the first Shabbaton, there were two families who had been great friends for years, and in that space, they learned they each had a sibling with mental health issues.
“They actively reflected on that moment and how that was a part of themselves they have never shared with anyone else,” she said. “When people say ‘How are you doing?’ at kiddush, they can be themselves when they answer and be part of the community. The shul is there to make us feel like it’s an extension of our family.”
One event that stood out to Thomas-Newborn happened during a Shabbat kids’ program. Every Shabbat, the Torah is taken out for the children to see. “There was a little girl who didn’t get to see it, and she came up to me crying,” she said. “I said ‘Let’s do it again.’ We took out the Torah together and opened it up and looked inside. She was so incredibly happy and joyful to be near it. That was such a privilege to be part of that with her and for a child to feel that connection to Torah.”
A job that Thomas-Newborn was tasked with was building up the young professionals community at the shul. “When I started, it was a very small group of people, and now it’s almost at 100 people,” she said. “We recently had a Friday night minyan and it was full of joy and singing and felt like life was back to normal.”
Before joining BDJ, the rabbanit received her semicha from Yeshivat Maharat as well as graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brandeis University. She is a Board Certified Chaplain (BCC), and did her original chaplaincy training at New York Presbyterian. Along with working at the hospital, she’s going to be publishing a Shabbat guidebook for families with babies and toddlers within the year and looking into part-time pulpit work.
“I feel very blessed to have been in the LA community.” – Thomas-Newborn
“I love pulpit work,” she said. “I cherish it. I’m sad to leave it and didn’t want to let that go. It’s really important for female Orthodox leaders to continue to work in pulpits because there aren’t that many of us.”
In a speech to his congregation about the rabbanit’s departure, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, senior rabbi at BDJ, said, “We will be experiencing a difficult parting of ways. Each one of us, without even a single exception will miss your passion, your pastoral insight and care [and] your Torah.”
According to Kanefsky, over the coming months, his shul “will be engaging in a deep and broad process through which we will arrive at a specific vision for the future of our female clergy position,” he said. “We will begin the process of searching for the person who will fill that position.”
For Thomas-Newborn, working in the Pico-Robertson community was a wish fulfilled. “I’m from Redondo Beach, and my dream was always to live in Pico because that’s where the kosher food and all the good shuls were,” she said. “There are a variety of ways in which I was able to live my dream.”
Even though her departure is bittersweet, she is looking forward to a new start.
“I’m very sad because I love this community so much and I’m so connected to it,” she said. “But I’m hopeful for what’s in the next chapter for myself and my family.”
